Green spaces - Concepts and planning approaches

AR-532 / 4 credits

Teacher: Jessel Beate

Language: English

Withdrawal: It is not allowed to withdraw from this subject after the registration deadline.

Summary

Urban green offers a variety of services and thus plays an important role in the transformation of our cities. The course provides an overview of various innovative approaches to the planning and design of multifunctional green spaces, focussing on how to build green and blue infrastructures.

Content

The future transformation of our cities faces a multitude of challenges that make it important to pursue multidimensional approaches: The aim is to design urban green and open spaces in such a way that they build green and blue infrastructure while fulfilling ecological benefits and, beyond that, various design and social requirements.

As urban areas are hotspots of climate change, they must be designed to contribute to the adaptation of cities to climate change, better retain water during heavy rainfall, and provide habitats for urban biodiversity. Cities are also living spaces for people, which means that quality of life and fair access to open spaces must be maintained and people's physical and mental health and well-being promoted. Since space is a scarce resource in urban agglomerations, different requirements often collide in the same space, frequently leading to conflicts of use, for example in connection with densification, for which suitable and cost-efficient solutions must be developed.

 

In the international context, a whole series of new approaches have developed in recent years that consider the planning and design of green spaces from such multiple perspectives and, above all, in relation to adaptation to climate change in order to establish comprehensive green and blue infrastructures. Based on the principle of multifunctionality, the course introduces the scientific basis for the fundamental concepts of ecosystem services, nature-based solutions and green or blue-green infrastructure in urban areas. Building on this, it then uses a broad range of concrete international case studies to illustrate innovative approaches to the planning of green spaces and the development of green infrastructures:

 

  • Green spaces and green-blue infrastructures, the ecosystem services they provide and the basic principle of multifunctionality to be implemented
  • Social and governance aspects and environmental justice
  • From large to small scale - green space and green infrastructure planning at different scales, interrelationship between formal and informal planning processes.
  • Cities in climate change and nature-based solutions to support adaptation to climate change
  • Therapeutic mechanisms and health effects of green spaces, design of green spaces and green space systems to support human health and social wellbeing
  • Analysis and critical discussion of numerous innovative international planning and design concepts for green spaces and green infrastructures (e.g. green belts, double inner development in the redensification of settlements, picoparks, urban gardening + agriculture, urban forestry + urban rewilding, animal-aided design)
  • Role of participatory approaches

 

Keywords

Sustainable Transformation of Cities

Green and blue Infrastructure

Urban Greening

Ecosystem Services

Nature-Based Solutions to Climate Change Mitigation and Adaptation

Environmental Health

Interdisciplinary Planning and Management Approaches

 

Learning Outcomes

By the end of the course, the student must be able to:

  • Assess / Evaluate the multiple services and benefits that different types of urban green spaces and urban green infrastructure can provide
  • Discuss and critically reflect on concepts for green spaces and green infrastructures in urban planning
  • Explore the multifaceted role of green spaces for healthy and sustainable urban development as well as for climate protection and adaptation to climate change
  • Demonstrate how scientific findings can be translated into concrete planning and design
  • Argue in favour of a close relationship between the built environment and the green environment, which should be considered together from both a design and an ecological perspective
  • Design appropriate + effective concepts for urban green infrastructure that provide multiple benefits

Transversal skills

  • Set objectives and design an action plan to reach those objectives.
  • Communicate effectively with professionals from other disciplines.
  • Write a scientific or technical report.
  • Take account of the social and human dimensions of the engineering profession.
  • Take feedback (critique) and respond in an appropriate manner.
  • Access and evaluate appropriate sources of information.

Teaching methods

Lectures + exercises: Weekly lectures with accompanying discussions, which lay the foundation for own critical reflections, in the form of an analysis and presentation of self-selected case studies, which are put up for discussion together. The results are to be presented and prepared in a final report.

Expected student activities

Students are expected to actively participate in the course discussions. They shall develop an own critical reflection on an exemplary planning approach or case study, facilitate a related discussion and, based on this, prepare a short written report.

Assessment methods

Assessment is based on active and continuous participation in the course discussions (30%), as well as an analysis and presentation of a selected case study (30%), which serves as the basis for a written report (40%).

Resources

Bibliography

A comprehensive bibliography will be distributed during the course.

Moodle Link

In the programs

  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Green spaces - Concepts and planning approaches
  • Courses: 1 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Green spaces - Concepts and planning approaches
  • Courses: 1 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Green spaces - Concepts and planning approaches
  • Courses: 1 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: optional
  • Semester: Spring
  • Exam form: During the semester (summer session)
  • Subject examined: Green spaces - Concepts and planning approaches
  • Courses: 1 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Exercises: 2 Hour(s) per week x 12 weeks
  • Type: optional

Reference week

Related courses

Results from graphsearch.epfl.ch.